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Lincoln’s lessons
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Abraham Lincoln’s Feb. 12, 1809, birthday is now rolled into our generic Presidents Day, but some of the comments Lincoln made during the Civil war would creep out many secular reporters today. For example, when reports of fighting at Gettysburg hit Washington in 1863, “everyone seemed panic-stricken,” but Lincoln “got down on my knees before Almighty God and prayed…. Soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into his hands.”
Reporters today might not strenuously object to such talk if a president were to keep his religion personal and removed from public pronouncements or policy-making. Lincoln, though, did not compartmentalize. The faith he developed during the war led him to believe that “by Divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement in the world.” (He called the Civil War “a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.”)
Lincoln (HYPERBOLE ALERT) may or may not have walked thirty miles in a blizzard with two broken legs to return a three-penny overcharge to a customer, but his words were apt long ago and now when he spoke of Americans who had become “too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace.” His indictment stands then and now: “We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.”
It would be hard now for a president to speak with the tragic sensibility of Lincoln. We have progressed so far that we’re not ready for him.
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Identity theft
Now that’s some SPIN! You’re probably dizzy from it.
Your conclusion is like saying that we’ve progressed so far that we’re “not ready” for the horse and buggy. It would be better put if you wrote that we’re “well past” the need for it. We are. Thanks be to god.
After reading Scott’s post, Lincoln’s indictment still stands.
Lincoln’s actions, ie: suspension of habeas corpus at the start of the war, certainly make the worst of W and his PATRIOT ACT seem mild and laughable by comparison.
I’m sorry we don’t celebrate Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays separately as we once did. Too many don’t know or appreciate the accomplishments of both. Sturdier men equipped for the most troubling of times would be hard to find. I wish all would read ‘Team of Rivals’ by Doris Kearns Goodwin, subtitled The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln; and how he held together all his rivals (for the presidency) to serve as his cabinet during those war years. No spin needed for such a fascinating and compelling story, and no doubt held and guided often enough by an Unseen Hand.
A couple Lincoln quotes.
“The Lord prefers common looking people. That is why he made so many of them.” Attributed to Lincoln by James Morgon in his book “Our President” (1928).
After referring to “fruitful fields”, “healthful skies” and other national blessings, Lincoln proclaimed: “No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most-high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.” Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), proclaiming a day of Thanksgiving–October 3, 1863.
Some years ago, Congress combined Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays into one holiday - “President’s Day” - in order to avoid the creation of an “extra” holiday when MLK Day was established.
Praise God for each of those three Americans.
On one hand, I support the hesitation to make more day’s off for gov’t workers. On the other hand, why didn’t they call MLK Day, “Civil Rights Leaders Day?” Think of all the other great civil rights leaders who have been spurned and ignored by congress.
Charles Darwin was born on the same day and same year as Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12, 1809). One believed (like a good Creationist) that “all men are created free and equal” (quote from an 1858 speech by A.Lincoln) and the other that various homosapiens are not equal because they are differently evolved.
I wonder if Lincoln’s deep faith in God was the basis for his peculiar racial views? He spoke openly of his belief in the inferiority of the black race, declaring them unfit for voting, marriage with white people, etc., and said white people would be far better off if blacks were shipped back to Africa, and tried to organize efforts to do just that. Christians today say that he was just a man of his times, that pretty much everyone in those days felt that way, and we should ignore such anachronisms, as that’s outmoded and backward thinking that has no place in modern society. But when people say the exact same things about Lincoln’s “God talk”, Christians get mad, and say we need to return to Lincoln’s old fashioned values.
Go figure.
More:
“With malice toward none, and charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address [Mar. 4, 1865].
“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” Abraham Lincoln, Address to an Indiana Regiment [Mar. 17, 1865].
No, More likely only 50% of Americans wouldn’t nbe ready for Lincoln from my vantage today.
Hitler would have no problem killing that 50% I would guess too.
9 - Re: the last quote - well, he certainly did! And we’ve all been slaves ever since.
You should read The Real Lincoln by Thomas Dilorenzo. I doubt you’ll have too many nice things to say about this “christian” man then!